Judith Salomon

Container/Containment2018porcelain and cementDimensions variable

(b. 1952 – Providence, RI)Working in ceramics, Judith Salomon creates sharp-edged vessels that favor form and aesthetics over function. Traditionally rounded forms, such as vases or mugs, are slab built, replacing curved sides with asymmetrical trapezoids. Many works are adorned, inside and out, with bright colors and geometric shapes and patterns. Others take on a more subdued look, using sparse black and white linear patterns to highlight an angular seam or particular side of the object.

Deviating from exclusively ceramic work, in Container/Containment,porcelain forms sit within similarly shaped cement vessels. Their neutral surfaces are peppered with linear designs or, in one case, a block of delicate pink. Nestled within their cement containers, the delicate works become sturdy, bolstered by the weight of the material surrounding them.

Salomon received an MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics, Alfred University and a BFA at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Her work can be found in the collections of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Art Museum, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, among others. A retrospective of her work was organized by ARTneo in 2017. She is the recipient of the Cleveland Arts Prize (1990) and a National Endowment for the Arts grant (1981). Salomon taught at the Cleveland Institute of Art for 37 years where she was chair of Ceramics.

From the nominating artist:

Judith’s work embraces the language of painting (color, mark making, illusion, gesture) while remaining fully rooted in the traditions of both functional and sculptural ceramics (the purpose behind a vessel, the relationship created when forms touch, the specificity of carefully selected clay bodies and glazes). This synthesis is exciting. There are so many painters currently turning to ceramics as a means of expressing two-dimensional ideas in sculptural form, but I love seeing the evolution of Judith’s work as it tackles similar formal concerns from a three-dimensional point of origin.